Graphene is a real-time dashboard and graphing toolkit built with D3.js and Backbone.js. It was originally designed to sit on top of the Graphite data model and API, enabling teams to quickly build live dashboards that show thousands of datapoints updating over time. The project provides a highly customizable and hackable client-side engine: you define “widgets” such as time series graphs, gauges or labels, hook them to data providers, and the toolkit handles ingestion, rendering and live updates. While the code is somewhat dated (it uses Backbone + CoffeeScript/JavaScript rather than newer frameworks), it remains useful for legacy setups or teams wanting to build simple real-time dashboards without heavy infrastructure. The repository includes example dashboards and a builder API to define data sources and widget configurations. It also emphasises aesthetic and performance considerations, aiming to support thousands of data points and live refreshes in the browser.
Features
- Live streaming of numeric/time-series data into dashboard widgets
- Support for multiple widget types (gauges, labels, time series)
- Pluggable data provider model (can swap out Graphite for other back ends)
- Dashboard builder API for declaratively specifying sources and widget layout
- Customizable look and feel via CSS/JS, with demo assets included
- Works in browser with D3/Backbone stack, enabling rapid front-end deployment
Project Samples
